It is well known that manufacturing processes produce waste byproducts harmful to the environment. These waste byproducts come in various forms, including aerosol, particulate, gaseous and solids. For example, volatile organic compounds are known to be vented from various manufacturing processes, including paint application processes, wood manufacturing processes, and other processes known to require heating or drying liquid chemical compounds.
To comply with environmental protection regulations, many of these manufacturing apparatus are fitted with thermal oxidizers to destroy harmful gaseous pollutants resulting from the industrial process gaseous waste byproduct. Thermal oxidizers heat the waste gases to temperatures that cause pollutants to spontaneously react with available oxygen inside the thermal oxidizer. The resultant oxidation reaction inside the thermal oxidizer converts oxide compounds to primarily, carbon dioxide and water that can be legally vented to the atmosphere.
To generate the necessary heat that causes pollutants to spontaneously react with available oxygen, thermal oxidizers are fitted with burners that generate heat by way of fossil fuels, namely natural gas or oil. Previously, attempts have been made to reduce the amount of fossil fuel required to generate enough British Thermal Units (BTUs) of energy to convert the pollutants to oxide compounds. For example, a common type of thermal oxidizer is known as a regenerative thermal oxidizer or RTO. The RTO includes a regenerative heat exchanger formed from adsorbent material to recover heat from the oxidizer exhaust and use that heat to preheat the incoming process exhaust stream. Preheating the incoming exhaust stream has proven to significantly reduce the fuel consumption of the burner. Not only does this reduce the costs associated with operating the RTO it also reduces the amount of CO2 vented to the atmosphere as a result of burning fossil fuels reducing the carbon footprint required to operate the manufacturing apparatus. However, even the RTO requires mass consumption of fossil fuel to generate the necessary BTUs to oxidize the pollutants produced by the industrial process. For example, a typical RTO processing 100,000 ft3 of polluted exhaust air per minute will consume 11,000,000 BTUs per hour of fossil fuel.
Given the high cost of fossil fuel, and even more particularly, the desire to reduce the amount of fossil fuel generated CO2 vented to the atmosphere, it is desirable to find even further ways to reduce the amount of fossil fuel necessary to operate an RTO.